Ghost & Seek

Project

Augmented Reality Game

My role

UX/UI Designer & Developer

Location & year

Long Beach, United States - 2025

Ghost & Seek

An AR memory game developed during a 3-week hackathon at MIT Reality Hack x Snap Spectacles using Lens Studio. Designed for adults with ADHD, it transforms everyday public spaces into playful cognitive playgrounds. The project was presented at AWE 2025 in Long Beach, California.

Our Team & My role

We were a small team with big ideas called Parallaxi, blending our skills to build Ghost & Seek in a short period of time.

I dove into the research, helped shape the concept, and got my hands dirty coding the core interactions that made the game come to life.

Why ADHD matters

ADHD is more common than people think and more complex too. It can make focus, memory, and emotions feel like a daily maze, especially for adults. For many, just staying present in noisy, distracting public spaces is a challenge in itself.

By understanding these everyday obstacles, we can design tools that meet people where they are, making support feel natural, empowering, and even a little fun.

Target Users

Our primary users are adults with ADHD—diagnosed or self-identified—who are juggling work, relationships, and personal goals. They often struggle with focus, time management, emotional regulation, and procrastination in everyday environments.

We designed this experience with their real-world challenges in mind.

Concept

We believe attention doesn’t need to be trained in isolation. By combining cognitive goals with real-world interaction and social play, we designed a system that feels alive, immersive, and collaborative. This concept brings therapy-inspired focus training into everyday spaces—turning solo effort into shared experience.

Goal

We didn’t want another app that tells people to sit still and concentrate. Instead, we designed a game that moves with you, something that feels good to play and does good in the process. Our goal was simple: make focus feel fun, therapy feel natural, and everyday spaces feel a little more empowering.

Process

We began by mapping how attention works across sight, sound, and movement. Using gaze tracking, hand interaction, and spatial audio, we built a system that responds in real time. Each layer was tested and refined to keep the experience intuitive, responsive, and grounded in the user’s physical environment.

Technical Implementation

Ghost & Seek was built in Lens Studio using the Snap Spectacles template, designed specifically for wearable AR experiences. We combined custom scripting with Spectacles’ built-in capabilities to create a responsive, spatially aware game environment.

I contributed to both research and development, writing core scripts that brought our concept to life. We used World Mesh and surface tracking to detect physical environments such as floors, walls, and tables, and dynamically placed gameplay elements into real-world space.

Spatial Object Spawning

Using the SpawnerSetup.js script, I helped develop a surface-aware spawning system that placed objects based on mesh type, orientation, and spacing. I implemented logic for randomized scaling, grouped object control, and orientation using surface normals and projection math.

Timed Gameplay Logic

In TimedSpawner.js, I scripted a timed spawning system for the ghost object. Using vector-based position randomization and delayed event callbacks, I enabled real-time, dynamic object placement within defined spatial bounds that turned attention practice into an engaging memory challenge.

Together, these systems created an immersive, movement-based AR experience that adapts to the user’s surroundings while supporting focus, interaction, and cognitive growth.

How it works

Challenges we ran into

Finding the right balance between therapeutic value and playful simplicity was our biggest design challenge. We refined the experience through multiple iterations based on feedback. On the technical side, we faced hardware limitations related to UI responsiveness and interaction precision on Spectacles.

What we learned

This project deepened our understanding of how to design for neurodiverse users in real-world contexts. We also gained valuable hands-on experience with Lens Studio, learning how to design around its constraints for wearable and spatial computing.

What's next for Ghost & Seek

We're continuing to test Ghost & Seek with users and hope to build clinical partnerships.

Future updates include:

  • Adaptive difficulty based on user behavior

  • Multiplayer mode for collaborative play

  • Expansion to mobile AR and other platforms

    Ultimately, we see Ghost & Seek as a tool for therapists, educators, and families to support attention-building through accessible, playful interaction.